Q & A with Matt Lebowitz

June 25, 2012 12:01 AM

June 25, 2012 12:01 AM

Lake Erie Arboretum at Frontier (L.E.A.F.) Board Member Matt Lebowitz, 49, of Erie poses for a portrait in Frontier Park in Erie on June 21. Lebowitz designed a Frisbee golf course for the park.JOSH BARBER/ERIE TIMES-NEWS

The summer softball and sand volleyball leagues have already gotten under way, and some Erie residents have suddenly found themselves smack in the middle of another summer with a hankering to find a new outdoor activity.

Matt Lebowitz, a board member at Lake Erie Arboretum at Frontier, might tell you to start honing your disc golf skills in preparation for the next disc golf tournament that L.E.A.F. will put on in September as a fundraiser for one of Erie's most versatile summer hot spots, Lake Erie Arboretum at Frontier Park.

Whether you're a rookie or a professional disc golfer, Lebowitz said the L.E.A.F. fundraisers provide not only entertainment, but also an acute awareness of the environment around us.

1) How did you become involved with disc golf?

Frontier Park just seemed like a logical place to do it on a temporary basis. You need more than just a golf course, because you don't need open spaces necessarily. It can be challenging to throw between the trees. We got a lot of responses from people who are interested in having a permanent course set up, but that would never happen because of the size of the park and the multiuse of the park. You can't have Frisbees flying around when you have dog walkers and soccer players and things like that. Actually, the idea was probably partially from "Seinfeld." George plays frolf once in the "Summer of George" episode. So, we did it just as a temporary thing and as a fundraiser for the park, for the new building and all the maintenance that needs to be done. The new building will include bathrooms and offices and classrooms.

2) Do you actually play disc golf yourself?

I've never done it myself, but I have friends that do. Everybody has friends that do it, it seems, and so I have heard a lot about it. I'm not really that good at it, but it's great entertainment. I love being out in the park. What I think that this event did was brought people out, made people aware of the trees and of where you are in the park and on the planet. I also work on the movies as well, the Friday night movies we have going on. These are going to have a heavy emphasis this year on the War of 1812 and Perry's 200-year celebration.

3) What do you do for fun?

I take advantage of everything that Erie has to offer. The block parties, 8 Great Tuesdays, baseball and hockey games. As far as recreation, I ride my bike and golf every once in a while. I like steeping myself in everything. I'll be 50 in September, and I love the fact that the strawberries are ripe now, and the blueberries will be ripe later. I appreciate every day, rather than lamenting things I can't do anymore. I see a lot of the things that Erie has to offer and the things it could offer. The more things that people have to do and the more diversions that people have, I think is better for the city, better for the park. I've been a part of L.E.A.F. for eight years now, and it is a great organization.

4) What opportunities will L.E.A.F. offer to frolfers in the future?

We're planning another fundraising event for September. It's tough because you can't plan on shutting down the park for a whole league. The original course we did in April was nine holes, and in September we're going to expand it to 18 on both sides of the creek instead of just on one. Frisbee needs a different mindset than golf. It's a different muscle group to actually be able to throw it and throw it level. It's similar because it's a steady, constant stroke like golf is. Also like golf, it's so frustrating when a throw goes wrong. The rules are the same idea, with strokes being the amount of throws to the hole.

5) How successful was the first fundraiser?

There were only a dozen people who did it; we didn't really advertise it a lot. I really wanted it to be something that would generate some buzz for the next time. It didn't need to be that successful right off the bat. Golfers don't have any problem spending $50 to go out and play nine or 18 holes for a fundraiser, but may not really be that into Frisbee. They did it when they were a kid, but they may not be doing it anymore. But we got about two dozen calls asking when we were going to put in a permanent course. So there's a lot of buzz to do it, it's just a question of getting people organized. Part of what happened was that we got a lot of frolfers together who hadn't known each other, so that could help us expand. It could be that you get 50 frolfers together, have them each pay $25, and have a traveling league with holes in different places. The peninsula would be great for it, another golf course or city park would be great for temporary courses.